Dear Editors,
I am disappointed that the State of California may soon mandate an Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) for its high schools that incites hostility towards Israel.
Why must a curriculum designed to study ethnicity in America mention a foreign country like Israel? Even if there is relevance to a discussion of Israel, there is no justification for defamatory lies like the ESMC’s charge of “apartheid” or its implication that Israel and its supporters operate “interlocking systems of oppression and privilege” that must be opposed with “direct action” and “resistance.” Israel upholds laws of non-discrimination that are just as strong and comprehensive as those in the US.
The falsehoods expressed in the ESMC wrongly replace learning with political indoctrination. They also make a mockery of ethnic tolerance by instilling prejudice against the world’s only Jewish state. Even more threatening, the spiteful agenda may heighten the rise of antisemitism in America.
The ESMC impliedly urges “resistance” against Israel though its definition of the boycott movement known as BDS. BDS combats Israel though economic, cultural, and academic warfare. Just as white nationalists strive to restore the 19th Century supremacy of their race in America, BDS activists want to revive the 19th Century dominance of Arabs over Jews in the land that became Israel. The boycotters pursue this goal through the unfounded assertion that millions of Palestinians living outside Israel have a “right of return” to that country. Neither form of bigotry belongs in a public school.
The ESMC should celebrate ethnic diversity, not demonize an ethnic group.
Joel M. Margolis